Win10 TP and Linux Distros

[jefboyardee]

Loading it on separate partition, I've tried the Windows 10 Technical Preview a few times. But I've always backed out in frustration because it kills the Grub menu that lets me choose Windows or whatever Linux distros I have loaded. Specifically, Windows 10 throws up its own boot selector between it and whatever your other Windows currently is, W7 Home Premium in my case.

To get rid of W10TP, I'd boot a Gparted CD and format the Win10 partition. Then I'd have to do bootrec /fixmbr to get the original Windows to boot. Then I'd have to load bios off a distro flash with a distro and choose the a desktop distro to boot up. Then I'd have to load Grub-Customizer or somesuch and re-save the MBR the way it was before all this started.

It finally occurred to me that as long as your main OS is Windows, and you just boot Linux for giggles, you can just do part of what I've been doing all along, load bios off a distro flash with a distro and choose the a desktop distro to boot up. When you're done, just pull the flash out on boot and to return to the Windows choices.

So now, for no particular reason, I can boot to Win7, Win10, Linux Mint or Xubuntu. As for Windows 10, all the currents apps I've used on Win7 also work on Win10, so I could actually switch over completely. But since they're so similar, I don't see the point. But then again, I haven't tried Cortana yet.

 

[jefboyardee]

In fact, the distro flash can just be left in the USB port fulltime and conjured up during boot bios setup.

 

[Dngrsone]

I use rEFInd for my bootloader; once set up, it should recognize any OS I later add, though since I use Secure Boot, I may have to sign the new kernel (shouldn't be a problem with Win 10 though)...

 

[jefboyardee]

Well, I got W10TP to work as well as it can on a ten year-old XP PC. Because of that PC, I can't blame it for hanging on some things. But I can say it's so similar to my W7HP, I don't see why they didn't just name it Windows 7.1... hard to get excited about that. And it really is tricky to get rid of it.

 

[jefboyardee]

Gave up for now, posted at:

Windows 10 Technical Preview Notice...

I tried dualboot W10TP 9926 > 10014 several times on my ancient XP-era HP. The PC has been on W7HP for several years and works fine but pokey. As for W10, it seems amazingly like 7, with a dash of Metro in the start menu. I don't see, given what little I have to work with, how W10 represents a future. I've given up on it for now but will likely snatch the free upgrade when it's ready, maybe even get it inside a real computer.

Anyway, it was nice of them to let us tinker with it.​